n the midst
of a court, ornamented with porticos of three files of lofty columns,
each full a mile long; the gardens were of vast extent, with vineyards,
meadows, and woods, filled with every sort of domestic and wild animals;
a pond was converted into a sea, surrounded by a sufficient number of
edifices to form a city; pearls, gems, and the most precious materials
were used everywhere, and especially gold, the profusion of which,
within and without, and ever on the roofs, caused it to be called the
Golden House; the essences and costly perfumes continually shed around,
showed the extreme extravagance of the inhuman monster who seized on the
wealth of the people to gratify his own desires. Among other curiosities
was a dining-room, in which was represented the firmament, constantly
revolving, imitative of the motion of the heavenly bodies; from it was
showered down every sort of odoriferous waters. This great palace was
completed by Otho, but did not long remain entire, as Vespasian restored
to the people the lands of which Nero had unjustly deprived them, and
erected in its place the mighty Colosseum, and the magnificent Temple of
Peace.

NAMES OF ANCIENT ARCHITECTS DESIGNATED BY REPTILES.

According to Pliny, Saurus and Batrarchus, two Lacedemonian architects,
erected conjointly at their own expense, certain temples at Rome, which
were afterwards enclosed by Octavius. Not being allowed to inscribe
their names, they carved on the pedestals of the columns a lizard and a
frog, which indicated them--_Saurus_ signifying a lizard, and
_Batrarchus_ a frog. Milizia says that in the church of S. Lorenzo there
are two antique Ionic capitals with a lizard and a frog carved in the
eyes of the volutes, which are probably those alluded to by Pliny,
although the latter says _pedestal_. Modern painters and engravers have
frequently adopted similar devices as a _rebus_, or enigmatical
representation of their names. See Spooner's Dictionary of Painters,
Engravers, Sculptors, and Architects; Key to Monograms and Ciphers, and
the twenty-four plates.

TRIUMPHAL ARCHES.

Triumphal arches are monuments consisting of a grand portico or archway,
erected at the entrance of a town, upon a bridge, or upon a public road,
to the glory of some celebrated general, or in memory of some important
event. The invention of these structures is attributed to the Romans.
The earliest specimens are destitute of any magnificence. For a long
time, the